Chris is Trying

We went to Taiwan earlier this month, including 5 fantastic nights in Taipei. This trip had very few plans other than “eat all of the excellent food”; we weren't worried too much about the various sights around the city (although we checked some of them out) as we prioritised our days & nights around the dishes we wanted to eat.

Taipei has a crazy density of Michelin recommended venues; there were two within a 5 minute walk of our accommodation and another couple a quick train trip away! Here's the official list from the Michelin website if you want to explore.

Din Tai Fung – dumplings & buns

We were in Taipei from Wednesday through Sunday, and we wanted to avoid the bigger crowds on Friday/Saturday/Sunday we headed to this ultra-famous restaurant mid-week. We thought we were smart by getting there for when it opens at 11am and we were absolutely wrong! There was a queue of ~70-80 people already ahead of us so we were worried we'd have to wait a long time, but the staff are super efficient at seating everyone and getting the orders going.

Of course, we had to get several dishes of xiao long bao, what DTF is famous for – we opted for the standard ones, as well as the truffle version which was recommended by a friend.

We also got some beef noodle soup, which was unfortunately a waste of calories. The noodles were fine, but nowhere near the quality of the dumplings. The side of cucumbers you can see in the photo above was a common salad dish we really enjoyed, and it balanced out the textures of everything else we ordered.

After ticking off the signature item, we then got a serve of the shrimp shao mai (i.e. the things that look like the Like Like creature from the Legend of Zelda).

I have to mention again that the service at DTF is crazy fast. All of the popular dishes are clearly prepared in large amounts, so our first dishes came out within 5 minutes of hitting the order button.

Anyway, after filling up on various dumplings, my sweet tooth started yelling at me so we got some custard lava buns. Phenomenal – no other dessert we had in Taipei got close to this.

A great brunch all round.

Lao Shan Dong – noodles

A quick walk from our accommodation was a Michelin recommended noodle shop that was open for breakfast. Given how late everything opens up in Taipei, we took the opportunity to get out before 10am and try it out.

It was down a creepy basement underneath a shopping centre – you had to walk down escalators that hadn't turned on for the day yet, and then walk around aimlessly until you found the restaurant which was the only thing open on that floor. But as with all good food, the journey was well worth it.

My wife fortunately remember to take some photos of the staff & store itself, while I was focused on rubbing my full belly.

The width of the noodles is what you notice first – they're much wider than any other Chinese noodle. The broth was really tasty but the flavour wasn't too intense – it was subtle and fairly balanced (like most broths we had in the country). Excellent cuts of meat as well too!

Wang's Broth

The following day, we got brunch at Wang's Broth – a roughly 10-15 minute walk from our hotel. Nothing wild here, just excellent braised meat and rice.

Wang's Broth uses the same broth for all of their dishes; you walk past the big vat as you take your seat inside.

My wife got the dish with the mushrooms included but she regretted it and said she would have preferred the classic pork & rice, as there's more sauce to mix in which isn't absorbed by the mushrooms.

Raohe Night Market – Black Pepper Pork Buns

Of course I have to finish up with the classic black pepper pork buns from Raohe Night Market. These things are crazy cheap – 60 or 70 NTD (~$3AUD) and quite large & filling. If you're thinking of having several smaller dishes for a night at Raohe, this one might ruin your appetite for some of the other options in the market so plan ahead.

The queue snakes around the front of the store right at the main entrance of the market, so you can see the team preparing the buns, activating your saliva glands:

It was belting down with rain when we visited, so we were eating our buns while huddled under our umbrellas – sorry, no photos of the buns themselves! Here are a few articles that show them in detail: here and here.

Bonus: Jensanity!

During one of our nights in Taipei, we checked out Linjiang Night Market after eating dinner with a cousin who lives in the city. Apparently this is where Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO) visited about a week earlier, and tried a bunch of food!

When looking for a little dessert, we coincidentally visited the same place that Jensen dropped into for some shaved mango ice. Turns out that all of the vendors that Jensen visited ended up taking photos with the guy, and plastering them on the wall as advertising:

Lucky us!